PANJWA'I PATROL - U.S. Special Operations service members and Afghan National Army commandos patrol a village during a clearing operation in the Panjwa'i district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, April 25, 2011. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel P. Shook

Afghanistan: Taliban Announce Spring Offensive -- BBC

The Taliban have announced the start of a spring offensive across Afghanistan.

In a statement, the group said the fighting would start on Sunday, targeting foreign troops as well as Afghan security forces and officials.

It warned civilians to stay away from public gatherings, military bases, government buildings and convoys.

Meanwhile initial findings from a Nato inquiry into a deadly attack at Kabul airport on Wednesday suggest the gunman was not connected to the Taliban.

The Royal Navy’s pending class of two aircraft carriers, the Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales, could end up costing more than double what government officials initially projected, according to a BBC report today. It underscores how big a deal it was for the U.K. to decide to buy F-35C Lightning IIs, as opposed to the delayed B version. When the Brits shifted to the Cs last fall, it was read in Washington as just another blow against the B, but many Americans may not have realized the consequences it would also have in today’s Austerity Britain. The Royal Navy now needs to redesign one or both carriers to accommodate the conventional C models, and that could raise the cost of the ships from £5.2 billion — or about $8.7 billion — to £7 billion, or about $11.7 billion.

When allegations surfaced that details in Greg Mortenson’s memoir “Three Cups of Tea” had been fabricated, some reports noted that the book, a best-seller about doing good works in Central Asia, is “required reading” for U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. These reports were referring to the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center’s Pre-Deployment Afghanistan Reading List, which (in addition to cultural field guides and counter-insurgency manuals) recommends novels such as Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” and George MacDonald Fraser’s “Flashman.”Read more ....

My Comment: If I had a choice, I would read "Starship Troopers" .... but that is just me.

Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Photo from Charlie Rose

Engagement, Partnerships Must Guide U.S. Asia Policy -- Defense News

The United States must find new ways to engage China and India, two major stakeholders in Asian security, and build partnership capability with countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam as the continent continues to transform, according to a senior U.S. Defense Department official.

Speaking at an event in Arlington, Va., April 28, Michèle Flournoy, U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, said Asia "sits at the crossroads of a number of emerging threats," including cybersecurity, its role in the global supply chain, climate change and terrorism.

BOSTON — The Chinese military is putting the finishing touches on its first aircraft carrier, which could set sail later in 2011.

What will its first mission be? Officials aren't saying. But its neighbors worry that the vessel’s putative name may provide a not-so-subtle hint.

The ship is rumored to be called the Shi Lang, after a Qing Dynasty admiral who in 1681 conquered the Kingdom of Tungning — a territory better known today as Taiwan.Read more ....My Comment: In China .... there are no coincidences. The name will be chosen to make a message, and being China's first aircraft carrier, that name will be deliberately chosen to make a worldwide message.

LOADING UP - U.S. Special Forces team members with Special Operations Task Force South board two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters following a clearing operation in the Panjwa'i district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, April 25. 2011. The operation, led by Afghan commandos resulted in the removal of Taliban propaganda material and three suspected insurgents detained. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel P. Shook

Petraeus To The CIA: Surge Superintendent To Spearhead Spooks -- The Economist

BIG personnel changes are afoot for President Obama's national-security lineup. Leon Panetta, currently director of the CIA, will move into the cabinet seat about to be vacated by Robert Gates, the secretary of defence. Meanwhile Mr Panetta's plum CIA gig will go to General David Petraeus, currently America's head honcho in Afghanistan. Mr Obama's decision to make George Bush's favourite general the CIA's new helmsman brings home the remarkable, and to many of us the deeply disappointing, continuity between the Bush and Obama's adminstrations' approaches to national security and war. Installing the architect of the Iraq surge in Langley raises several worries. As Glenn Greenwald observes:

One reason why it's so valuable to keep the CIA under civilian control is because its independent intelligence analyst teams often serve as one of the very few capable bureaucratic checks against the Pentagon and its natural drive for war.

Staff Sergeant Jason Rogers, USMC, returned home Thursday, 14 April 2011, his body borne upon a sea of waving American flags and hands held tightly in salute for the Brandon, MS Marine killed in Afghanistan earlier this month.

The video is MHP Trooper Elmo Townsend's view as his dash cam recorded the escort from Airport Road and along U.S. 80, as hundreds of onlookers gathered to pay their respects.

Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on the so-called Euro missile shield during the Russia-NATO Council summit in Lisbon in November 2010. NATO insists there should be two independent systems that exchange information, while Russia favors a joint system with full-scale interoperability.

The question of arming the rebellion in Libya has divided the international community Photo: REUTERS

Col Gaddafi Still Has Quarter Of Chemical Weapons Stockpile -- The Telegraph

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi still has a quarter of his stockpile of chemical weapons and is ready to use mustard gas in a "desperate" fight to the death, a senior Libyan rebel military commander claimed yesterday.

General Abdul Fatah Younis, who was Col Gaddafi's interior minister before defecting to the opposition and is now the rebel army's chief of staff, gave the warning as he pleaded for Nato allies to arm the rebels with heavy weapons, including helicopters and anti-tank missiles, to defend the besieged city of Misurata.

He predicted the Libyan dictator would "never accept retreat" and would be ready to use chemical weapons in a last stand against rebels or the civilian population.

Border skirmishes continue for an eighth day as both sides accuse the other of breaking a short-lived truce.

A brief ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia has broken down, shattering hopes for a quick end to the border conflict as the two sides exchanged fire for an eighth day.

Field commanders agreed to the truce in a meeting at the disputed border on Thursday. But Cambodian Colonel Suos Sothea said the Thai army fired artillery shells into Cambodia again on Friday and small arms fire crackled anew around the Ta Krabey temple, which lies in a disputed zone along the frontier.

"We cannot trust the Thais," he said. "Yesterday they said they'd stop fighting and now they are attacking us again."

Coulibaly had refused to surrender when government troops seized the Abobo neighbourhood on Wednesday [AFP]

Ibrahim Coulibaly: Ivory Coast's Serial Coup-Plotter -- BBC

The death of one of Ivory Coast's most charismatic commanders and serial coup-plotters, Ibrahim Coulibaly, eliminates one of the main threats to the new government.

But the offensive against Mr Coulibaly, nicknamed "IB" and recently self-promoted to a general, has shocked many who credit him with playing a key role in bringing the new President, Alassane Ouattara, to power.

The Ivorian ministry of defence has confirmed his death, along with six fellow fighters, after an offensive against his headquarters in the PK-18 district on the northern edge of Abidjan.

Anti-government protests have spread across Syria despite weeks of government repression [Reuters]

How America Must Respond to the Massacre in Syria -- Marco Rubio, Foreign Policy

It’s time for President Obama to back up his rhetoric with firm action. The first step: Recall the U.S. ambassador from Damascus.

In recent days, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has used its army to murder hundreds of innocent civilians as part of a vicious campaign of violence against unarmed Syrian demonstrators. What we are witnessing in Syria is another tragic outrage in the Middle East that requires immediate condemnation backed by specific measures from the United States and the international community. U.S. President Barack Obama needs to make clear whose side America is on, back up our rhetoric with action, and clearly articulate why Syria matters to the United States.

Royal Wedding Passes Without A Hitch As Kate And William Seal It With A Kiss -- The Guardian

Considering the huge guest list, the crowds, and the massed ranks of cameras, the royal wedding proved an intimate affair

Considering the size of the audience, the two sets of trumpeters, two choirs and several of the most senior clerics in the land, the presence of the entire British royal family, 45 crowned heads from around the world and a guest list stretching to nearly 2,000, it was quite an intimate wedding. And, confounding all the understandable fears, nerves and precautions, it went off without a hitch.

Lara Logan feared she would die a "torturous death" during a sexual assault and beating she suffered at the hands of a violent mob in Egypt's Tahrir Square. In her first television interview since her ordeal two months ago, the CBS News chief foreign correspondent and "60 Minutes" reporter reveals what happened to her for the first time in an interview conducted by Scott Pelley.

Logan's story will be broadcast on "60 Minutes" this Sunday, May 1 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — A day after his Fatah movement initialed a reconciliation agreement with militant Islamist group Hamas, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sought Thursday to counter warnings from Israel and suggestions in Washington that the accord would undermine peace efforts.

Meeting at his headquarters with a group of Israeli businessmen and former security chiefs advocating an Israeli peace initiative, Abbas gave assurances that the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he heads, would still be responsible for handling negotiations.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, center, during the White House announcement that he was being named C.I.A. director. The move will give him direct control over drone attacks in Pakistan. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Move to C.I.A. Puts Petraeus in Conflict With Pakistan -- New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The appointment of Gen. David H. Petraeus as director of the Central Intelligence Agency puts him more squarely than ever in conflict with Pakistan, whose military leadership does not regard him as a friend and where he will now have direct control over the armed drone campaign that the Pakistani military says it wants stopped.

My Comment: I have no sympathy for the Pakistani position. They are openly supporting a terrorist group (the Haqqani network) that are killing and maiming U.S./NATO troops and our Afghan allies. If they are not willing to stop these people who are on their own soil .... what can I say .... but be prepare for the consequences. Unfortunately .... U.S. - Pakistan relations are going to go into the toilet even more than where they are now, and the conflict between U.S./NATO/Afghan soldiers and the Taliban are going to increase even more. But there are no good options in this situation .... but the realization that we need someone like Patraeus in the CIA to confront Pakistan when they need to be confronted.

Tens of thousands fill the streets of cities across Syria -- and for the first time, the capital of Damascus – after weekly prayers to defy the regime of President Bashar Assad. The protests suggest that the use of extreme force has failed and perhaps outraged some on the sidelines.

Reporting from Beirut — Tens of thousands of Syrians poured into the streets of the capital, Damascus, and other cities after weekly prayers Friday, overcoming an official campaign of violence and intimidation to deliver a powerful message of defiance against the regime of President Bashar Assad.

The Navy’s top civilian said that attack submarines are in the future for both enlisted and commissioned women.

As the first wave of female officers moves through training to report to ballistic and guided-missile submarines in November, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said enlisted women should also have the opportunity to serve on submarines. Additionally, both enlisted women and female officers should be allowed to serve onboard attack submarines, not just the guided-missile and ballistic boats open to them today.

Photo: Obama has said that his foreign-policy ideas defy traditional categories and ideologies. Photograph by Martin Schoeller.

The Consequentialist: How the Arab Spring remade Obama’s foreign policy. -- Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker

Barack Obama came to Washington just six years ago, having spent his professional life as a part-time lawyer, part-time law professor, and part-time state legislator in Illinois. As an undergraduate, he took courses in history and international relations, but neither his academic life nor his work in Springfield gave him an especially profound grasp of foreign affairs. As he coasted toward winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, in 2004, he began to reach out to a broad range of foreign-policy experts––politicians, diplomats, academics, and journalists.

My Comment: Charles Krauthammer has a rebuke to Ryan Lizza's article, and it is here. Ryan Lizza was also interviewed by Charlie Rose last night, and that discussion is here.

What is my take .... last night Ryan Lizza remarked how the term .... "leading from behind" .... is the best way to describe U.S. foreign policy, and that the phrase first came from South Africa's Mandela who embraced it and used it to convince South African authorities to change their way of governing. I cannot deny that, but where I differ from Ryan Lizza is that Mandela had a clear objective and ideology as well as a willing negotiator in South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk. President Obama does not have this clarity of purpose in his foreign policy (with the exception of being critical of past U.S. foreign policy decisions), nor does he have willing allies who will go to bat for him when he needs them. He is a solitary leader on the world stage, and when interests intersect is when other world leaders will talk to him. Charles Krauthammer's analysis is on the money .... and unfortunately for us .... this lack of vision, commitment, and purpose from the White House (and State Department) is severely hurting U.S. foreign policy .... a situation that almost every other country around the world is now taking notice.

Nuclear missile launch teams tether cases containing classified documents to their bodies before heading off to their 24-hour-alert shift in a Montana missile field. Jonathan Torgovnik

Meet The Airmen Who Watch Over America's Nukes—And Await the Unthinkable -- Popular Mechanics

Deep underground in remote locales lies the United States' stockpile of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Though they are icons of the Cold War, ICBMs remain the cornerstone of U.S. nuclear defense, and stand at 99 percent readiness levels decades into their lifetimes. Popular Mechanics descends into a Montana bunker to meet the airmen who stand guard over America's nukes, awaiting the call they hope never to receive.

WADI WATCH - U.S. Army Pfc. Aaron Birmingham keeps on eye on a wadi or dry gully in Andar, Afghanistan, April 21, 2011. Birmingham is an infantryman assigned to the 1st Infantry Division's Company D, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade. The area is known as a Taliban stronghold and is where the unit received small arms fire earlier in the month. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Andrew Guffey

CIA Director Leon Panetta and ISAF Commander Gen. David Petraeus will get new assignments Thursday, with Panetta being nominated to head the Pentagon and Petraeus replacing him at the CIA. But the CIA and the military have completely different assessments of the NATO-led force's progress in Afghanistan, placing Petraeus in charge of a bureaucracy largely skeptical of his optimistic analysis of the war.

About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.